Thursday, June 22, 2006: Today we visited Shishiori Elementary School. Elementary schools in Japan do not have Pre-K or Kindergarten. They start with Grade 1 (age 6) and end in Grade 6 (age 11). This school was a public school, but they did not wear uniforms. I’m not sure why – I believe schools get to make this choice for themselves. Students get to school by 7:45 a.m. They walk on their own to school. The first through third graders do not participate in after school activities. Their release times are staggered, so the 1st graders get out at 1:30 p.m., the 2nd graders at 2:00 p.m., the 3rd graders at 2:30 p.m. School ends at 3:00 p.m. for the upper grades, but the 4th, 5th, and 6th graders MUST participate in after school activities. Therefore, they are at school until 5:00 p.m. or later everyday.

We arrived to an assembly in our honor. The children sang several songs for us. It took place in the gymnasium/auditorium. It is a beautiful building, built before WWII. However, it doesn't serve their purposes anymore and they are planning to knock it down when they have the funds to replace it.

We were able to walk around and observe classes. Each class had about 30 students in it. There were no discipline problems that I observed. We were then each assigned a class to sit with for an activity and lunch. I sat with the 1-2 class (first graders, second class). We made origami stars for the upcoming Star Festival. It was a lot of fun. Once we were done, the first graders all put on white hats and smocks. A bunch of them put on masks as well. About five or six of them went with the teacher to get food for the class. All of the students eat the school lunch. Today, it was soup and octopus balls. I helped the teacher and a few students serve the lunch to the other students. It was very good. The students were surprised that I could use chopsticks.

Many students also wanted our autographs again. A couple gave me back little sheets of paper with their signatures. It was very cute.